News

"The Manny" is a comedy drama set in Mexico, focusing on a single mother's struggle to balance work and parenting. The well-written character dynamics and performances keep viewers engaged throughout the 10-episode series. The cast includes familiar faces like Sandra Echeverría and Iván Amozurrutia, who bring depth and authenticity to their roles.

Netflix's The Manny is a comedy drama that features both familiar and fresh faces as its cast members. Set in Mexico, The Manny focuses on the day-to-day snags of a single mother who finds it hard to juggle her professional life with her responsibilities as a parent. Things, however, finally start looking up for her when she finds a male nanny named Gabriel. Gabriel not only makes it easier for her to handle her children but also opens the door for a new romantic endeavor.

Although the Netflix romance show follows a simple narrative in its 10-episode runtime,...

Dragas mexicanas, start your engines! Valentina and Lolita Banana will host the first-ever iteration of Drag Race Mexico, Rolling Stone can exclusively reveal. Both stars are expected to make the announcement at DragCon in Los Angeles Friday.

The two hosts will guide local queens to become Mexico’s next drag superstar as contestants face off in acting, fashion, and comedy challenges for a cash prize. The show’s contestants will be revealed at a later date.

“With Drag Race Mexico, you can find the tenacity of the Mexican heart,” Valentina tells Rolling Stone.

Even though it’s been decades since it first premiered, La Usurpadora remains one of the campiest, most beloved classics in the telenovela canon. Its 102-episode run was full of jaw-dropping plot twists and shocking surprises that gripped audiences from the moment the Spanish-language drama premiered in February 1998 (in Mexico, three out of every four people reportedly watched the show, which was broadcasted in more than 125 countries.)

The story followed two long-lost twins — one rich and evil, one poor and saintly, both played by actress Gabriela Spanic — and involved no...

TelevisaUnivision’s fledgling streamer ViX Plus has ordered an untitled biographical series about the life of Mexican actor María Félix.

Produced by a mostly female team of creatives, the series is the first to tackle the story of Félix, also known as “La Doña,” who died in 2002. The icon will be played by three Mexican actresses — Sandra Echeverría (“La Usurpadora”), Ximena Romo (“Dime Cuándo Tú”) and Abril Vergara — who will each portray Félix at different ages.

“At ViX Plus, creating content that reflects our culture and illuminates our unique and diverse stories – all in Spanish, is our priority,” said Vincenzo Gratteri, senior vice president of development for ViX Plus. “We’re excited to tell the extraordinary story of María Félix. Her creative energy and indomitable spirit will be a source of inspiration for our audience.”

Written by Larissa Andrade, Alejandro Gerber, Tania Tinajero and Gabriela Rodríguez and directed by Mafer Suárez,...

Until Pantelion Films unleashed “Instructions Not Included” in the U.S., grossing $44.47 million there in 2013, no other distributor had really cracked the Latino market.

Over the next eight years, Pantelion has produced the biggest U.S.-Mexico double-market comedy movie franchise, “No Manches Frida” and handled the first-run release in the U.S. of six of the 10 biggest Mexican hits of all time.

Now, however, leading Latino studio Pantelion Films is raising the ante.

Partnered by sister company Pantaya, the premium streaming Spanish-language service, from August this year Pantelion has signed talent deals with Maite Perroni (“Dark Desire”) and Mauricio Ochmann (“El Chema”) and co-development and production accords with Elefantec Global and El Estudio, The Lift and Traziende Films.

Simultaneously, with The Lift Entertainment, it has gone into production in Mexico on “La Usurpadora, The Musical,” a modern musical movie makeover of Televisa’s 1998 telenovela classic that punched humungous ratings and was exported to 125 countries.

Major Latino Hollywood studio Pantelion Films is starting production on what it describes as its “most ambitious undertaking to date”: “La Usurpadora, the Musical.”

Given Pantelion was the distributor of “Instructions Not Included,” the highest grossing Spanish-language film of all time in the U.S., as well as producer of “No Manches Frida,” its highest grossing Spanish comedy, that claim to ambition means something, singling out “La Usurpadora, the Musical” as one of the big Spanish-language releases of 2022.

Produced by Pantelion Films and The Lift Entertainment, the movie marks a modern musical adaptation of one of the most succesful telenovelas of all time, “La Usurpadora,” a 1998 Televisa classic that hit huge ratings and was exported to 125 countries.

Directed by Santiago Limón,, “La Usurpadora, the Musical” teams music producer Sebastian Krys, winner of eight Grammy awards and 12 Latin Grammy awards, choreographer Priscilla Hernández, creator of the Day of the Dead parade in “James Bond: Specter,...

Amazon Studios, La Unión de los Ríos, Kenya Films and Infinity Hill have teamed to produce Argentina’s first Amazon Original film, Santiago Mitre’s “Argentina, 1985,” which looks set to become a banner Argentine big fest title and release in 2022.

Headlining arguably the foremost Argentine stars of their generations – Ricardo Darín and Peter Lanzani (“The Clan”) – the feature film has just started shooting in Argentina.

It focuses on an extraordinary but real life event of which Argentineans can feel proud: the true story of how a public prosector, Julio Strassera, a young lawyer, Luis Morena Ocampo, and their inexperienced legal team dared to prosecute the heads of Argentina’s bloody military dictatorship in a battle against odds and a race against time, braving bomb and death threats.

The so-called Trial of the Juntas is described as the biggest prosecution process for war crimes since the 1946 Nuremberg Trails after WWII.

“Argentina,...

The Secret In Their Eyes

It's been a while since we turned our Streaming Spotlight on a country, so this week we thought we'd turn our attention to Argentinian filmmakers. As with all country focus pieces, it's disappointing to learn about films it is not yet possible to stream - on which note, I urge you to look out for El Aura, and the other films of Fabián Bielensky along with early films from Juan José Campanella like Son Of The Bride and more recent films, including Santiago Mitre's Paulina. If you're looking for more inspiration, check out our Stay-At-Home Seven.

The Secret in their Eyes, Amazon, from £2.49

Remade in English in 2015, with an all-star cast including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman - the original is far superior. Juan José Campanella crafts a dense and twisting thriller about retired court employee Benjamin (Ricardo Darín who as one of Argentinian cinema's leading.

A fervid supporter of new directors, Paris-based sales house Celluloid Dreams has dropped two clips and the poster of Brazilian João Paulo Miranda Maria’s “Memory House” (“La Casa de Antiguedades”), a first feature, but also the only Latin American title to be included in this year’s Cannes Official Selection.

“Memory House” will now world premiere in early September as one of 50 features at a slimmed-down Toronto. It was also confirmed on Tuesday for San Sebastian’s New Directors lineup, an influential new talent showcase.

Written by Miranda Maria, “Memory House” adds to Brazil’s fast-burgeoning canon of movies examining its urgent racial and social issues.

A first sequence catches Cristovam as he trudges down a lane taunted by local teens. An aged but still stout Black worker from Brazil’s often still dirt-poor rural North, Cristovam has relocated to Brazil’s rich South to work at a milk...

Univision, which is coming off a period of reorganization and nearing a change in ownership control, released its upfront slate Tuesday with an emphasis on consistency and reach to U.S. Hispanic consumers.

Calling itself “America’s Hispanic Superbrand,” the company said its offerings across entertainment, sports, live events and news give advertisers stability and growth potential despite the uncertainty roiling the marketplace. In its upfront presentation to advertisers, delivered online, it touted 11 new scripted series, 10 trophy soccer events and a series of initiatives surrounding this fall’s election.

“With a clear mission to inform, empower and entertain the Hispanic community, we’re playing a more vital role in our audience’s lives than ever before during these unprecedented times,” CEO Vince Sadusky said. “The investments we’ve made in network, local and digital programming has resulted in Univision finishing the broadcast season as the highest-growth network at a time...

It looks like no coincidence that two of the biggest announcements concerning celebrated Argentine movie directors and producers this year were their moves into drama series creation. In February, Netflix announced that K & S, producers of “Wild Tales,” “The Clan” and “El Angel,” will produce a series adaptation of legendary Argentine sci-fi graphic novel “El Eternauta,” with Bruno Stagnaro directing.

In March, El Estudio announced two series with another founding father of the New Argentine Cinema, Pablo Trapero: a U.S. series remake

of his movie “Carancho” and bio-series “Galimberti.”

Appointed president of Argentina’s film agency Incaa in December, director Luis Puenzo does enjoy government backing, but he faces a perfect storm.

Even before Covid-19 struck, Argentina sustained crippling inflation: 50% last year and in 2018, plus a plunging peso, which lost 77% of its dollar value from April 2018 and studios’ lock on prime exhibition slots.

Last month, coronavirus had halted some 30 shoots,...

In a casting coup for Telemundo, NBCUniversal Spanish-language network has enlisted Mexican telenovela superstar Fernando Colunga to star in several original productions.

The deal kicks off with Colunga tapped to star in “Malverde: El Santo Patron,” (“Malverde: “The Patron Saint”), Telemundo’s first “Super Series” drama done in a period setting. Telemundo’s “Super Series” have shorter episode runs than traditional novelas and are designed to be renewed for multiple seasons.

According to Telemundo Global Studios president Marcos Santana, the new pact marks Colunga’s return to television after he has worked in film and theater for the past four years.

“He’s in the ‘Guinness Book of World Records’ for having appeared every minute on a television screen somewhere in the world for some period,” said Santana of the star of such wildly popular Mexican telenovelas as “La Usurpadora,” “Esmeralda” and “Pasion y Poder.” Colunga’s novelas have aired...